A Monthly Make: Cath Kidston Purse

I am taking part in The Felt Fairy's Monthly Make and this purse from Cath Kidston is my January make. The kit is from CK's book 'Stitch' which I got for Christmas. I have her other two Books, 'Make' and 'Sew' and it took me 18 and 6 months respectively to make those projects so joining has given me the incentive to get on with this one.

I have made a start on the bargain needlepoint kit that I found in a charity/thrift shop for just 2.69 GB pounds. I am working on it on week night evenings whilst watching t.v. I watch two episodes of the US programme 'Unsolved Mysteries' followed by an Australian show called 'Crimescene Forensics'. Nothing like curling up with a good crime show and some stitching on a cold winter evening, LOL.

Had a nice surprise in the post this morning when all these stitching goodies turned up. There was a note saying they were a competition prize but I don't remember the competition or even entering but as most stitchers would agree, you can never had enough stash.

Last week I made this White Chocolate and Cranberry fudge. I am not much of a cook but this was so quick and easy that even I couldn't mess it up. Anyone with a Tesco Clubcard would have seen the recipe with their last statement but I have included it below. Everyone agreed that it was delicious.

There is still time to enter my giveaways which closes midnight on Monday, 31st January. Just add your name to the post below.

Happy crafting

Shirley

1st Blogiversary Giveaway

I can't believe I have been blogging for 1 year. Where has that time gone? I have had great fun and met lots of lovely people from all over the world so I've decided I would have two giveaways to commemorate my blogiversary.

The first giveaway is for stitchers and comprises:

2 pieces x 32 count linen, 15" X 18" each in oyster and twilight blue

Needlecraft back issue with mini cottage kit

Cross Stitch Magic

Pot Pourri Sachet Kit

Christmas One Nighters chart book

Mothers day card cross stitch kit

Clotted cream fudge

The second giveaway is for dogs comprising:

Dog's Christmas Stocking

Dog treats

Rope toy

'Woof" collar (medium/large size)

and Clotted cream fudge

*

The giveaways are open to anyone who wants to enter. All you have to do is become a follower (or if you are one already) and leave a comment after this post stating if you would like to enter the stitching, dog or both giveaways.

It will close on Monday, 31st January and I am happy to post to anywhere in the world.

Good luck,

Shirley

The Lavender House

Rather than start any new projects, I am trying to finish off some of those I started last year. One of those is The Lavender House, finished at last and filled with dried lavender harvested from the plants I introduced to my garden last spring.

I cut a few bunches of lavender (leaving some for the bees) tied them up with twine and left them to dry hanging upside down in our boiler room, which is very warm. You can see the jar below filled with the dried lavender and also the book the pattern was taken from - 3D Cross Stitch. I used 22 count hardanger and it was very fiddley to put together so I would not make another one in a hurry!

Cross Stitcher magazine published my Jan Constantine Britannia cushion project in the current issue and sent me these lovely silk threads and a plane friendly thread cutter pendant and needle threader.

I enroled on a crochet course at the end of last year which is keeping me very busy but I am still keeping up with all my other crafts in between. Here is a teddy bear I crocheted a while ago using a pattern from Annies Attic. I am hoping to improve my skills and work some more advanced designs with the help of the course.

Better Late than Never

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas holiday, I did and even managed to finish off these two heart decorations over the break and hang them on my tree. At least I will have more decorations for next year and as I said in the title, better late than never!

"The boys" all enjoyed their Christmas and had so many presents in their stockings we had to ration them to one or two a day. The pics below show Higgins playing with a squeaky cracker, opening some of his presents, Archie with a rawhide candy cane and Wilberforce doing what he enjoys most - nothing!

Happy new year to all and I hope you have a peaceful, prosperous and healthy 2011.

Father Christmas

I submitted this page to Scrapbook Magazine ages ago and they have just published it in the current issue. They wanted 6" x 6" which I don't usually like but I did use it as practice for the 12" x 12" page below which is for my vintage photos family album.

I did not manage to catch up with my Christmas crafting apart from this Meery Christmas card design which I backed with red felt and used red felt letters to make into a card. As for the other projects, well there is always next year!

S0 the big day is almost here and I'd just like to wish anyone passing this way a very happy Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous new year. And in the words of Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol: "God bless us, every one".

Meery Christmas

No, I didn't make a spelling mistake. With the trend for all things meerkat continuing I started to make a Christmas card for my mother-in-law, who loves them, using a kit from Mouseloft. I also made a second one on evenweave which I hoped to turn into a decoration for our tree.

My Christmas crafting has come to a bit of a halt as just over three weeks ago I found myself back in hospital for a week. It was a side effect of the operation I had earlier this year and I have spent two weeks at home recovering and have only gone out for the first time this week so I am hoping to try and finish everything off in time for Christmas.

Luckily I made all my stitched cards throughout the year and they have now all gone out - below are some I made previously.

I also managed to finish off this felt dog, the third one I have made and it is now on its way to a fellow Airedale owner who fell in love with the one I made for our club's raffle.

Wilberforce has just had his 15 minutes of fame when this Vetvits brochure landed on my door mat. I sent them a picture for their new gallery and received a dog book then forgot all about it until they used him on this recent mail shot. I just hope he doesn't start acting like a star and demanding steak dinners, feather beds and a chauffeur driven car! Hold on, he gets those already!!

Scotty Dog Patchwork Cushion

This is my latest finish. I took part in the embroidery challenge (redwork) on stitchers showcase and decided to make it into a cushion. The pattern in free to downlown at the Bustle and Sew blog here who also have other lovely patterns both free and to purchase.

I found a piece of cream fabric in my stash and pinning the pattern underneath, traced the design onto my fabric, with a water soluble pen, using a lightbox. I only have a small lightbox, originally bought for paper crafting, but it did the job.

I used DMC 498 stranded cotton to work the design in stem stitch and after washing to remove the pen marks, trimmed it to the required size with a rotary cutter.

I have a lot of small fabric scraps leftover from other projects so after working out the size to fit around the front panel, making sure they lined up at the edges, made patchwork strips and sewed them to all four sides.

After that I made some matching binding, a back panel with three buttonholes and put the whole lot together. This was my first time trying redwork and I am glad I took part in the challenge as I have something very different from my usual makes and have extended my stitching repertoire at the same time.

Happy stitching,

Shirley

Airedales on the March

Sunday was the autumn walk of the East Anglian Airedale Terrier Club. Here we are gathering in the car park before setting off on our walk through Thorndon Woods Country Park in Suffolk. Normally there are also other breeds, owners second dogs, but this time there was only Higgins who really stood out and a tiny Welsh Terrier (fourth from right), who is really just like an Airedale in a convenient, easy to use size!

The walk was longer than we have done before (about four miles) so we were all tired on the way back and the boys fell asleep on the car ride home.

The pictures look a little dull but it was actually quite a warm day for the time of year. Don't suppose that will last for long though and I have knitted two lace stitch scarves for when it turns a little chillier. The pink one is from a free pattern on the Knitting Daily website. The flower has a brooch pin on the back so it can be worn separarely.

The other is a vintage pattern from my collection and I have used a variegated mohair yarn.

Airedales in Stitches

I mean, of course, embroidery stitches. Just came across these three pics I made ages ago. The photographs are not good - they are actually worked on mint green fabric! Heaven knows why I picked that colour, I certainly wouldn't now but here they are photographed and shown here for posterity. The charts are all from Stitch Pics.

More Airedales in stitches but not made by me this time. I thought I would show my fab new sweater I just bought from Cath Kidston. It is 100% Merino wool and nicely big and baggy - I can never resist anything sporting Airedales and will probably wear this to my Airedale Club's Christmas party.

Hair Today - Gone Tomorrow

I have always wanted to use this title on a scrapbook page but for now it will have to be a blog post until I get round to it. I recently started driving again and finally took Archie and Wilberforce to be clipped yesterday. They had so much hair removed, they look like different dogs.

After the ordeal of losing their lovely thick coats and as a reward for being so well behaved, we stopped off on the way home so "The Boys" could cool off with a McFlurry each.

Haven't had much time for stitching this week, just a small crown taken from a 2002 issue of Cross Stitcher magazine.

Stitching and shopping

I seem to have recovered my stitching mojo this week and have made this birdhouse hanger from Rico, it was very quick to stitch taking just a few evenings. We have been out quite a lot visiting different towns recently and of course, you have to have a peek in their crafts shops, don't you? There are so many lovely new things in the winter ranges that I couldn't resist stocking up.

The first rubber stanps I have bought for ages were these Festive Frolics range from Docrafts, gorgeous mirrored butterflies, glitters, some Tim Holtz products and lots of lovely craft magazines.

Promarkers which are just the best for colouring stamped images. Below are some Border Collie card making kits which look like Higgins and I had to get the Court Street Bobbies papers as they include an Airedale Terrier wearing a police helmet!

I bought two of the Rico birdhouse kits which can be seen at the bottom of the picture above, either side of the Martha Stewart birds punch.

I have been having a play with the rubber stamps I bought. I had seen a lot of easel cards on card blogs that fold flat for posting so after a bit of experimentation I managed to make this one above and another Christmas card below. I have made so many Christmas cards this year that I think we already have enough to send even if I don't make any more!

Also have a few finishes: An armchair pincushion, my first time using plastic canvas - the pattern was free from Annie's Attic. An intarsia knitted cushion, the pattern for which was in Woman's Weekly a few weeks ago and the blue willow cross stitch (a kit from Sew and Sos) which I just made up into a card.

I got a nice surprise through my letter box this morning for winning the crossword competition in Cross Stitcher Magazine: A spring hoop, Madeira shade card, Madeira threads and holder and gold plated scissors. I have been using Madeira threads more and more recently so it is great to add to my collection. Happy stitching.